Final F1 Testing Day 1: Perez stays on top

After a break of just four days, testing has resumed at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit. This four day test offers the final chance for all the Formula 1 teams to test their radically different 2014 cars, before the first race of the season, in Melbourne on 16 March. The session saw Sergio Perez topping the time charts for Force India.

Today's program for most teams comprised long runs and a limited amount of setup evaluation in the morning, followed by race procedure work (including practice pit stops / starts) in the afternoon.

"We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it. We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it's been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car. Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne."

"That was not a fantastic day for us," said Mercedes' Nico Rosberg. "We tried some new parts on the car and you find out a lot through doing that. But unfortunately we did not only discover good things today. I managed to do a couple of good laps before lunch but in the afternoon we had a few small problems which ended my running a bit earlier than planned. This shows that we are pushing everything to the limit and we still have a massive challenge in front of us during the last three days of testing. We need to maximize our time here to be prepared for Melbourne. But after a difficult day overall we are on the right path."

Daniel Ricciardo was back at the wheel of the trouble-plagued Red Bull RB10 lemon. After a productive morning in which he logged 32 laps, the afternoon session was more difficult, leading to the team spending most of the second period in the garage. Daniel did, however, return to the track to post a further seven laps just before the end of running.

"The morning was much better for us with a few longer runs," said Daniel afterwards. "Behind the wheel, that’s the best I’ve felt so far. The package seems to be coming together better. We still had a few issues today, but at least when the car was on track it was much more useful running and we made progress in the morning. It's getting there. I’d love to keep going, but at least Seb has two days after me in the car, so I think we’ll be looking pretty good for the next three days."

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